Sunday, 3 March 2013

Changeable Lizard

The Changeable Lizard is widely distributed in tropical Asia including Hong Kong.

It is often mistakenly called “Chameleon” because of its ability to change colour. However, Changeable lizards can change their colours, quite rapidly, but not as rapidly as chameleons, yet these two species belong to different families of lizards.I saw this red lizard the other day,

within minutes, the red colour disappeared.

This one was bright red before it saw me,

then the colour changed.

Like the chameleons, the changeable lizard can change its colour either to express its mood,

or to improve its camouflage, like these ones.

Usually, the changeable lizard is grey or olive coloured with speckles or bands,

but during the breeding season, the male’s head and shoulders turn red/orange and his throat black.

Its bright red coloration earned the nickname of 'bloodsucker', although the Changeable Lizard does not actually suck anybody’s blood.

Nie wiedziałam , że są takie jaszczurki, które potrafią zmieniać swoje kolory. Pięknie to uchwyciłeś na zdjęciach. Pozdrawiam.I did not know that there are lizards that can change their colors. This beautifully showed in the pictures. Yours.

Those Changeable Lizards are such cute little guys. I thought they were called changeable because of the variety of colors they display, but I did not know that one lizard could show such an array of different coloration. I have seen them for sale in local pet shops. Do you see monitor lizards around Hong Kong?

Beautiful blog with stunn ing pictures. Because these lizards don't live the Netherlands your blog is very interesting for me. The most common species here is the Zootoca vivipara, a small lizard that cannot change its color. Compliments! Greetings, Joke